The council and Metro staff engaged with partners and community members to develop the framework with these core values:

Lead with racial equity: Communities of color disproportionately shoulder unaffordable housing costs, which leaves them vulnerable to getting priced out of their homes. Leading with racial equity means our regional investments will seek to create affordable homes in places where communities of color live today to ensure they stay in their neighborhoods; and in neighborhoods from where they were priced out and displaced.

Create opportunity for those in need: Our regional investments will seek to serve people whom the private housing market serves the least, including people of color, families with children and multiple generations, people with disabilities, seniors, veterans, people experiencing homeless, and people at risk of homelessness or displacement.

Create opportunity throughout the region: Our regional investment seeks to build homes near better access to transportation, jobs, schools, parks and other amenities.

Make good use of public dollars by building homes that are accessible and that last for generations; and stay accountable to taxpayers through community oversight that monitors the investments’ impacts and tracks progress toward regional goals.

The need for affordable homes looks different from neighborhood to neighborhood across greater Portland. Participating cities and counties are tackling these challenges by creating plans to build new affordable homes and protect existing ones – plans tailored to their community’s specific needs. Clackamas County, Washington County, including Beaverton and Hillsboro, and Multnomah County, including Gresham, Portland and Home Forward, will submit these plans to the Metro Council for approval.

Whether your roots in the region run generations deep or you moved to Oregon last week, you have your own reasons for loving this place – and Metro wants to keep it that way. Help shape the future of the greater Portland region and discover tools, services and places that make life better today.